Poster research aims to close the gap
Billboard Research: For seven years, SPR+ has been collecting exposure data for street-level billboard locations. However, a separate methodology is required for billboard locations inside buildings.
Poster research SPR+ has spent seven years collecting contact data for street spaces. However, a separate methodology is required for poster sites in buildings.Swiss Poster Research Plus (SPR+), APG's poster research, has a major goal: the study aims to provide information on the performance data of all around 60,000 F12 and F200 poster sites in Swiss conurbations. This can be read at www.sprplus.ch. It is well understood: The figure of 60,000 includes not only APG's own sites, but also those of other providers, such as Clear Channel Outdoor Plakanda (CCOP) or Star Plakat, but the goal has not yet been reached. SPR+ has completed the data collection with GPS in twelve major Swiss conurbations (see box) and has also extrapolated the performance values for 43 other cities. This data has also been incorporated into the SPR+ Expert planning tool. Nevertheless, SPR+ still has an important gap: So far, only the performance values of street areas have been collected, whereas no values are yet available for poster sites in buildings, train stations, underpasses, shopping centers and parking lots. And according to APG Marketing Manager Roger Möschler, this amounts to 14,000 to 15,000 spaces across Switzerland, or around a quarter of all poster sites.
The reason: GPS can only be used to take measurements as long as the test subjects are virtually outdoors. However, as soon as the test subjects enter heavily shielded buildings, it is no longer possible to track the distances traveled inside and the performance values of the corresponding billboards cannot be determined.
SPR+ now wants to fill this gap - with a pilot study that should be completed by the end of the year. The basis for this is the existing GPS data: "Thanks to this, we know which people entered which building through which entrance and when and where they left the building," explains SPR+ Managing Director Felix Mende. As part of the pilot study, four train stations, a shopping center, a car park, a freeway service station and a petrol station are now being empirically examined. "Various survey methods are being tested in order to identify the best possible method for the main study," says Mende. He is confident that this is possible. In addition, according to the SPR+ Managing Director, "an integrated model" is being developed, which will combine the GPS study and the property study. "The SPR+ Expert planning tool will then have access to this data set."
SPR+ is conducting the pilot study together with the German Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS). Fraunhofer, a long-standing research partner of SPR+, already has extensive experience in recording people's mobility in objects, says Mende.
How SPR+ worksOver the past seven years or so, more than 10,000 Swiss people have each worn a GPS mobility meter for a week, which stores the signals from at least four satellites every second. These recorded routes were then transferred to a digital map accurate to the meter, which also contains the positions of the poster sites and their observation areas. This makes it possible to determine when the test subjects passed which spot, how quickly and at what angle. Accordingly, statements can be made about the number of contacts and the quality of contact for each individual area.
However, as soon as a test person was in a covered location, their mobility meter was no longer able to receive the satellite signals, or only to a limited extent. Consequently, no or only incomplete position data was stored during this time.
The reason: GPS can only be used to take measurements as long as the test subjects are virtually outdoors. However, as soon as the test subjects enter heavily shielded buildings, it is no longer possible to track the distances traveled inside and the performance values of the corresponding billboards cannot be determined.
SPR+ now wants to fill this gap - with a pilot study that should be completed by the end of the year. The basis for this is the existing GPS data: "Thanks to this, we know which people entered which building through which entrance and when and where they left the building," explains SPR+ Managing Director Felix Mende. As part of the pilot study, four train stations, a shopping center, a car park, a freeway service station and a petrol station are now being empirically examined. "Various survey methods are being tested in order to identify the best possible method for the main study," says Mende. He is confident that this is possible. In addition, according to the SPR+ Managing Director, "an integrated model" is being developed, which will combine the GPS study and the property study. "The SPR+ Expert planning tool will then have access to this data set."
SPR+ is conducting the pilot study together with the German Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS). Fraunhofer, a long-standing research partner of SPR+, already has extensive experience in recording people's mobility in objects, says Mende.
How SPR+ worksOver the past seven years or so, more than 10,000 Swiss people have each worn a GPS mobility meter for a week, which stores the signals from at least four satellites every second. These recorded routes were then transferred to a digital map accurate to the meter, which also contains the positions of the poster sites and their observation areas. This makes it possible to determine when the test subjects passed which spot, how quickly and at what angle. Accordingly, statements can be made about the number of contacts and the quality of contact for each individual area.
However, as soon as a test person was in a covered location, their mobility meter was no longer able to receive the satellite signals, or only to a limited extent. Consequently, no or only incomplete position data was stored during this time.
The pilot study is now attempting to "reconstruct" these hidden routes empirically, so to speak.
Markus Knöpfli
